Dispatches Page II
HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELDOxford, Miss., December 4, 1862
Colonel T. LYLE DICKEY,
Commanding Cavalry Division:
Tilghman was left in command of troops at Rocky Ford and must now be working his way south some distance east of the railroad. He will be easily confused and routed. Look out for him, and if a chance occurs attack him with your full force. In striking eastward much will necessarily depend on the information you may be able to gather and your own discretion. If you learn, however, as I think is the fact, Columbus is only defended by conscripts it would be a great strike to get in there and destroy the enemy's armories, machine shops, &c.
Headquarters will be at Oxford at present, and this the point for you to return to.
U. S. GRANT,
Major General
OXFORD MISSISSIPPI
December 4, 1862.
Brigadier General C. S. HAMILTON, Abbeville, Miss.:
As soon as practicable let McArthur's division move up here and one brigade of Quinby's move up to Abbeville. Ross and the remainder of Quinby's division had better remain where they are until the railroad is completed.
U. S. GRANT,
Major General
SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS RIGHT WING
Numbers 9
Wyatt, December 4, 1862
* * * * * *
II. The Second Division, General Morgan L. Smith, will march to-morrow on the right-hand Oxford road to a good camp on the other side of the Hurricane Creek, near Bowles' Mill.
III. The First Division, General Denver, will following, taking the left-hand road and proceeding to College Hill, and there select a good camp.
IV. General Denver's regimental train will then follow him.
V. General Morgan L. Smith's regimental train will then follow to his camp.
VI. General Lauman's division will remain at Wyatt till the day after to-morrow and then move to a camp on the left-hand Oxford road beyond and near Hurricane Creek, leaving one regiment at Wyatt to guard the division trains and the bridge.
VII. Maps will be furnished each division commander, and as the roads are very bad every soldier must carry his knapsack and as much provision as possible.
By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:
J. H. HAMMOND,
Assistant Adjutant-General
HUMBOLDT, TENNESSEE
December 5, 1862
General SULLIVAN, Jackson:
I would again respectfully call your attention to the fact that these pretended deserters from the rebel army are coming here very thick. Two here in office of provost marshal now. They think the oath is not binding on them when they are where the rebels have the power, and if the rebels should again have it here they would not be found. There is another class who have been with Dawson and have been taken. The prefer to have been paroled and exchanged, yet for the purpose of getting home they taken the oath, expressing the same belief as to its obligations as above stated. It does look like they were attempting to get a band of guerrillas within our lines. These men profess no sort of friendship for the Government whatever. I would suggest that they should be sent north as prisoners, to be exchanged, and only let those take the oath who saw unmistakable evidence of determination to become loyal citizens. I make the suggestion because it begins to look alarming to turn so many of these loose among us. I make the statement and suggestion because we are here where we see the facts and you ought to be informed of them. Please answer by covering the case suggested.
Yours, respectfully,
JOHN I. RINAKER,
Colonel, Commanding Post
HDQRS. THIRTEENTH, A. C., DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE
Oxford, Miss., December 6, 1862
Colonel T. LYLE DICKEY,
Commanding Cavalry Division:
Rest your horses and men where you are, and when sufficiently recruited strike to the east and destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as much as possible. As started by me in a previous dispatch it would be a great strike to reach Columbus and destroy armories and machine shops there.
The cavalry force you will have with you can subsist on the country through which you pass. The plundering propensity exhibited by some of the cavalry should be suppressed as far as practicable. This can be partially done by making a detail from each regiment and charging them with procuring rations and forage for their regiments and replacing broken-down animals.
There is no depot of supplies here or I would forward some to you. Let me know how soon you can start, and I will relieve you by making an infantry and artillery demonstration in the same direction.
U. S. GRANT,
Major General
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI
December 6, 1862
Brigadier General GRENVILLE M. DODGE, Corinth, Miss.:
The general commanding has communicated with the general commanding Confederate forces on the subject of army surgeons who are captured having the right to retain their horses and other private property, indicating his willingness to let them take with them when released everything that is necessary to enable them to perform their vocations
In field, but has not yet received a reply, and until he does their horses and surgical instruments will be held, they having set the example in depriving our surgeon when captured f such property.
By order of Major General U. S. Grant:
JNO A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General
HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELD
Oxford, Miss., December 6, 1862
Brigadier General C. S. HAMILTON,
Commanding Left Wing:
You will put the division of your command (the one at Waterford and the one at Abbeville) in the best possible condition for defense and the comfort of the men, and let each remain where it now is until further orders, instructing the commanding officers of the respective divisions to collect as much forage and supplies from the surrounding country as possible, and sending out as far as is practicable to obtain it.
By order of Major General U. S. Grant:
JNO A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General
HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELD
Oxford, Miss., December 6, 1862
Major General J. B. McPherson,
Commanding Center:
You will put the division you have at Waterford in the best possible condition for defense and the comfort of the men, and leave it where it is for the present, instructing commanding officer to collect as much forage and supplies as possible from the surrounding country as far out as it is practicable to obtain it.
By order of Major General U. S. Grant:
JNO. A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General
CORINTH, MISSISSIPPI
December 6, 1862
General SULLIVAN:
If that command works south inform me. Roddey's whole force is 10 miles east of me and on the move; it may be that the two intend to make a junction. My cavalry are all out east toward the river; am inclined to think they will be able to drive Roddeys back.
G. M. DODGE,
Brigadier-General
BETHEL
December 6, 1862
General SULLIVAN:
I have to day heard from Savannah and 20 miles above on the Tennessee. My scouts are also down nearly to Clifton; no movement of the enemy reaches me from these directions. Two scouts came in from Yellow Creek above Hamburg. No enemy there or in that direction. Maxwell also reports same from Savannah. This evening I heard from Pocahontas; nothing there. Can be ready to move in thirty minutes, and will await your orders at any hour to night.
I. N. HAYNIE,
Colonel, Commanding Post
LA GRANGE, TENNESSEE, December 6, 1862
Captain T. H. HARRIS, Assistant Adjutant-General:
It is reported the guerrillas will attack our pickets at Davis' Mill to night. I have sent all my cavalry. Can you not send me a company? I have over a million and a half of ammunition, which is exposed, besides quantities of stores.
A. S. NORTON,
Colonel, Commanding
GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS RIGHT WING
Numbers 2.
College Hill, Miss., December 6, 1862.
I. The indiscriminate and extensive plundering by our men calls for a summary and speedy change. Our mission is to maintain, not to violate, all laws, human and divine. Plundering is hurtful to our cause and to the honorable tone, which characterizes the army of a great nation.
The Government of the United States undertakes to pay, clothe, and feed her troops well, and is prepared to do it. The officers and soldiers have no right to look to any other quarter for compensation and subsistence. By existing orders the quartermasters and commissaries of brigades may take corn-fodder and any species of forage, and cattle, hogs, sheep, meal, or any species of subsistence stores, which property they account for to the Government (in the same manner as if purchased, leaving to the proper authorities of our Government) to pay for the same or not according to the loyalty of the owner. Fire-wood can be taken by the troops from the standing or fallen timber, or even rails, when such timber is not to be had; but the taking of chickens, turkeys, pigs, or anything by soldiers is as much pillage and stealing as though committed in our own country, as these articles in fact belong to the Government of the United States, whose agents are present prepared to take them and issue to the troops as apart of their regular rations.
II. Each brigadier will hold each colonel or commander of a regiment responsible that when any of his men leave their ranks and pillage not only shall the stolen articles be turned into the brigade quartermasters or commissary, but that the soldiers be punished by fine or otherwise by sentence of a field officer.
III. Each brigadier may detail an officer and a sufficient number of men to forage, who will collect cattle, hogs, sheep, or any kind of subsistence, and also forage, which shall in all instances be receipted for by the proper accounting officer and issued to troops as part of their regular supplies.
IV. On a march soldiers must never leave their ranks without the order of their brigadier. If found out of their ranks, unless in the ambulances by order of the surgeon, the colonel will see that they are tried by a field officer as stragglers or pillager.
V. The firing of a gun is a false alarm, and will be punished as such, and if any man is a mile from his camp, unless sent for water or other duty, by the Articles of War he must be very severely punished. Patrols sent out may fire on such men, as they are as much enemies of their country as secesh.
VI. Colonels of regiments will cause the Articles of war to be read to their men now, and repeat it every ninth, and impress on them that they are employed to do the work of their Government and not their own will, and that we are in a hostile country where large armies, though unseen, are maneuvering for our destruction. To be ready we must act in concert, prepared to move in any direction at a moment's notice, and this would be impossible if men are allowed to roam about the country plundering at will.
By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:
J. H. HAMMOND,
Assistant Adjutant-General
WAR DEPARTMENT
Washington, D. C.,
December 7, 1862
Major-General McClernand, Springfield, Ill.:
Your letter of the 2nd instant reached be yesterday. Your proposed change of organization and equipment requires careful consideration and consultation with the General-in-Chief and Quartermaster-General before it can be approved, and also information from other heads of bureaus. I will have the questions determined as speedily as possible; but you will take no action on the subject until you receive instructions.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War
CORINTH
December 7, 1862
General SULLIVAN:
My cavalry are all on the move to the east, following Roddey. If it should become necessary I could send a sufficient force from there to the river to act in conjunction with you for all purposes; but I do not think any force except cavalry will venture this side of Tennessee north of Pittsburg, and of that I have already little.
G. M. DODGE,
Brigadier-General
HEADQUARTERS THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS
Oxford, Miss., December 7, 1862
Colonel MIZNER,
Commanding Cavalry Division:
Major Rowley reports a reasonably good force on the Yockna River, at Springfield. Put a strong picket there; also send two companies to the crossing of the Yockna where Colonel Lee's brigade crossed as we went south. A flag of truce from the enemy will be in shortly, and it must not be allowed to pass the Yockna. Instruct your pickets to stop the flag and send courier to these headquarters.
By order of Major General U. S. Grant:
T. LYLE DICKEY,
Colonel and Chief of Cavalry
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI
December 7, 1862
Colonel MIZNER,
Commanding Cavalry Division, Thirteenth Army Corps
You will hold the crossing of the Yockna and rest and recruit men and horses for another expedition. Forage and subsist upon the country around you to the north and west as far as practicable. Prohibit all straggling from their proper camps by either company officers or soldiers. Do the foraging under written orders from brigade or regimental officers and always under personal charge of a reliable commissioned officer, who shall keep foraging party under his control.
By order of Major General U. S. Grant:
T. LYLE DICKEY,
Colonel and Chief of Cavalry
HDQRS. RIGHT WING, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE
Oxford, Tenn., December 8, 1862
Rear-Admiral DAVID D. PORTER,
Commanding U. S. Naval Forces, Cairo, Ill.:
The movement thus far has been eminently successful. General Grant's moving down directly upon the enemy's strong lines behind Tallahatchie while the Helena force appeared unexpectedly on their flank, utterly confounded them, and they are now in full retreat, and we are at a loss where they will bring up. We hope they will halt and reform behind the Yalubusha with Grenada as their center. If so, General Grant can press their front, while I am ordered to take all the spare troops from Memphis and Helena and proceed with all dispatch to Vicksburg.
Time now is the great object. We must not give time for new combinations. I know you will promptly co-operate. It will not be necessary to engage their Vicksburg batteries until I have broken all their inland communication. Then Vicksburg must be attacked by land and water. In this I will defer much to you.
My purpose will be to cut the road to Monroe, La., to Jackson, Miss., and then appear up the Yazoo, threatening the Mississippi Central road where it crosses the Big Black.
These movements will disconcert the enemy and throw them on to Meridian, especially as General Grant presses them in front. All this should be done before the winter rains make General Grant's roads impassable. I will leave for Memphis to-morrow (Tuesday) night, and will reach Memphis with one of my old divisions Friday night. We ought to leave Memphis before the 20th, and I do earnestly desire you should meet me there at all events. Even if the larger gunboats cannot proceed at once, send those of light draught down with Captains Phelps, Gwin, Shirk, or some officer to assist me in the preliminary work. Of course Vicksburg cannot be reduced till you arrive with the large gunboats.
General Grant's purpose is to take full advantage of the effects of this Tallahatchie success.
I am, with great respect,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major General, Commanding
WEST TENNESSEE AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI
HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELD
Abbeville, Miss., December 3, 1862
Colonel T. LYLE DICKEY,
Commanding Cavalry Division:
Dispatch of 11 o'clock a. m. to day is received. It was my intention to send the expedition east to strike the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, as you propose, but thought first to give the cavalry one day's rest. You will, however, send them, if you deem it practicable, immediately after driving the enemy beyond the Yockna River, moving slow, so as not to tire out the cavalry, and after reaching the railroad and accomplishing the object of the expedition they will return to the main body of our forces at or near this place.
U. S. GRANT,
Major General